High-Leveled Challenges
by sodapoppana
Summary: Gromov is minding his own business on a roof, when Snippy suddenly crashes in, dragging couple mutants behind him and blocking their way back down. After finding another way the two minions have to solve couple more obstacles if they want to get back to their base and other comrades alive.


**High-Leveled Challenges**

Alexander Gromov was sitting on a top of a high tenement. It wasn't actually even near to the highest building in the area, not only because Alexander would never have been able to _climb_ on one of them considering his not so good stamina, but also for most of them coming tumbling down already some time ago.

The engineer let his weary eyes rest on the collapsed structure. Everything was so gray and dismal. Once again he wondered why it all had to end up this way. Why had he dreamed about superheroes and saving the world? Why was he now part of the saboteur's team? Well, that one was actually easy, because he wanted to survive.

Racket coming from behind him, woke Gromov suddenly from his thoughts. He turned around and saw how Snippy ran on the roof through the surprisingly still intact door and slammed it closed louder than the engineer thought was necessary. The man glanced wildly around until he finally noticed his new teammate.

"Engie!" Right, that was his name now. _Engie._ He actually found himself liking it. "I'm sorry, am I bothering you?" Charles asked in what sounded like mock politeness. Alexander shook his head a bit unsure what the other wanted from him, but the roar distinctly coming from the stairs leading to the location of the two of them sort of answered the question.

Engie shot up from his spot and rushed to lean on the door with his whole weight.

"Yes, well, we won't be able to hold them out of here alone." Then what did he suggest they would do? "We need to barricade the door with all the junk we can gather." Right.

As fast as they could, they moved all the heavy objects – tiles, rubble, even some bones (Alexander made sure not to touch them), though the last ones wouldn't probably help much – in front of the door.

"Let's hope it will hold", the sniper said studying their barricade and right after that got the answer. They heard another loud roar and then a thump. The door held. Gromov let out a relieved sigh.

"So", Snippy started, "what _were_ you doing here?" He asked looking around.

Now that they weren't in an immediate danger anymore, Alexander realized he was alone with the man he had kind of been avoiding, _on a roof_. What if Snippy found out who he was? He could easily throw him down over hundred feet and no luck of Captain would save him! So what was he supposed to do? Keep his silence and play a mute? No, Snippy must have heard Engie talking to the Captain, he would never buy it.

"I… watching the view", the engineer finally answered awkwardly.

"Tastes differ", the taller man mumbled to himself, making Gromov feel a bit heated. What was that supposed to mean? What did the almighty Charles Snippy think he knew?

"Well I find it beautiful!" Alexander snapped, before he could hold his tongue.

"Beautiful? How is that, in any twisted way, beautiful?" The sniper asked disbelieving. Gromov was about to answer that no ludicrous mind could see it, but the other was not finished yet. "There's just ruins and endless greyness in this wasteland. Everything is gone because of one man's megalomaniac idea."

Gromov swallowed his answer, Snippy was right. There was nothing beautiful in the ruins or in this dead city; he had just tried to convince that to himself so he wouldn't feel so bad. So he could say he had done at least something that wasn't an utter and complete failure.

"Though, I suppose not all is really that bad. I mean, in this God forsaken place I do have three", then Snippy muttered something that sounded like 'mentally challenged', "friends."

Well good for him. All Gromov had got was a crazy artificial intelligence trying to kill him. And he had even made her himself. Wait a second… three?

"Who's the third?"

"I know we don't come along very well and he's constantly trying to get rid of me, like with that whale thing, but Pilot is-"

Alexander interrupted him, he didn't really need to hear again about the inconceivable stories the other had about Pilot's hate towards him. "I didn't mean him. I know Pilot and Captain are your friends."

Snippy's goggle lenses shot up in surprise. "Oh… erm… I thought it was obvious you're one of the three."

"Oh", was all Gromov could say. This was a bit awkward and fairly unexpected. Charles Snippy thought of him, Alexander Gromov, as a friend. Then it figured to him again, he wasn't Gromov when he was with this team, he was Engie. It would probably take some time to get used to it.

After some uncomfortable amount of silence – excluding the thumping sound coming from the other side of the door – the engineer cleared his throat. "So, how are we going to get down from here?"

The sniper started moving dangerously around the edges. "I think, there just might be… Yes! Here", he gestured the engineer to come to him. Warily Engie obeyed and looked over the edge to see what Charles had found. It was a fire escape, rusted and rickety looking fire escape to be precise. He did not like where this seemed to be going.

Without a warning the sniper dropped himself to hang on the edge with his hands and then let go. Alexander was sure the fire escape would not endure, but was fortunately proven wrong. Snippy even jumped a bit to make sure it was strong enough. Or then he was just trying to give his teammate a myocardial infarction.

Engie eyed the structure suspiciously. "Umm, I think I'll wait here. The mutant monsters have to leave at some point, right?"

"Sure, but not any time soon and there's no telling how long the door will last", Snippy answered jokingly. Or at least Gromov hoped he was just kidding. "Come on, you're not afraid of heights, are you?"

The engineer gulped. "No, but falling from the top of a high building does not belong to my rare good dreams. And jumping on that old… thing, doesn't seem like a very good idea."

"You won't fall. Just do as I did, hang from the edge and let go."

Alexander really wanted to close his eyes, but that didn't seem like a good idea, so he tried to watch anywhere else but down as he carefully did what Snippy had told him to. In the end he had no idea if he was even hanging on a right spot, but he didn't dare to look. What if he wasn't and looking down would make him dizzy and loose the grip?

"You should move little to your left", Snippy commented.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Engie asked voice rising higher. His grip was so tight, that his knuckles were probably white under his gloves.

"Move your hands!" The sniper started to sound impatient. _Well excuse me, for not living an ultimate life of whether I will survive today or not!_ "Left I said!"

Finally Engie was panting on the fire escape deck next to his teammate. The latter one looked at the other shaking his head, "sometimes I think you're just pretending that clever thing." Gromov shot a cruel glare at him, but of course there was no way the other man could see it behind the amber goggles. Maybe Snippy was right. Again.

They started their deliberate travel down, from ladders to deck and from deck to ladders. Most of the way was made in silence, but at times Snippy tried to make an awkward conversation. Gromov just wasn't very eager to answer the small talk with nothing more than a snort or a grunt. Avoiding straight questions wasn't that easy on the other hand.

"So, Engie, what did you use to do before all this?" The sniper suddenly asked.

This was a very unsafe ground. "Um, I, well… I was an agent." _Idiot! That's what you are! He'll never buy that!_

"An agent?" Snippy asked impressed. Was he wrong? Did the other one believe him?

"Yes", Engie said quickly, "a KGB agent." He wished that had been true, it would've been so close to being a superhero. Well, closer than being a nerd.

"You know, you could have just said that you don't want to tell. Agent", the sniper chuckled, "like any agent would be as helpless as you." Alexander felt the burn on his cheeks and for once was truly grateful for the mask covering his face. Of course he didn't buy it, what was he thinking? "Besides, I thought you were an engineer." Maybe he should just jump off by himself? Dying couldn't be as terrible as this, right? _I mean, come on! Why didn't you just tell him you're Batman if you had to lie?_

"That… I… What about you?" Engie decided to change the subject on Snippy. "Did you like bein- ehm, your job?" He had changed the sentence just before relieving that he knew what Snippy's job had been. Would have been pretty hard to explain how he knew that.

"No. Well, not at least before I got transferred. Being a Dead Zone tour guide wasn't all that bad, though it seemed to take ages to get that transfer. All I got from being a pencil pusher was headache and minus credits. I even had this Drone following me everywhere, whenever I returned to the Cube." Maybe he shouldn't have asked, Gromov wondered as the guilt kicked in once again. He didn't really want to hear how much his former employee had suffered and how big his hatred was towards his old boss.

The consequence, karma, God, whatever it was, made the decision he wouldn't have to. Snippy had taken couple steps down the next ladders, when Engie heard a loud creak. He knew immediately what it meant and concluding the direction where the sound had come from, Charles was in peril.

"I think you shouldn't", Engie started, but then realized there was no time as the bolts holding the ladders unfastened. "Snippy! Watch out!" He let out a cry and dived to take a hold of the sniper. And just in time. The ladders Snippy had been on fell clattering down with all the parts of fire escape below them.

Now the engineer was facing another problem. He was lying flat on his stomach on a deck, holding the other man – who, by the way, was heavier than he looked – with one hand, while the other was around a rail and he had no idea how he was going to get the sniper back up. Maybe he should just let go, Captain would probably understand that he had no other choice and Pilot would thank him for getting rid of the "jiggly slug". Or he could tell that he was too late.

_No, stop that! He is one of the few humans who survived from _your_ mistake, you are going to do everything to save him!_

…_everything?_

_EVERYTHING!_

Man, he hated when he lost a fight against himself.

Terminating quickly the possibilities to the one that would _probably_ work, Engie threaded his foot through the railing. Reluctantly he let go of the rail with his hand and felt how Snippy's weight and the gravity pulled them a bit more towards the ground.

"Hey, did they happen to teach you about this kind of situation in your agent training?" Charles sounded somewhere between joking and hysterical. Engie should have maybe given reassuring words, but he needed all his concentration to reach for Snippy with his free hand. Besides, little fear would just do good to the man.

After getting a firm grip, Alexander was supposed to drag his teammate up, but he found a terrible flaw in his plan. He couldn't get enough support to do it, not with just one foot steadily between rails.

"Snippy, you need to give me your hand."

"Oh, you want to hold hands now? I don't know if we're on that state yet, I mean, these are our first playdate and-"

"Snap out of it! We for one are still at fifty feet height and secondly if you didn't guess already, I am not very strong and you are not very light!" His voice was again creeping higher, like he wasn't dizzy enough otherwise, but at least it had worked.

Obediently Snippy raised his hand and tardily Engie loosened his other hand's grip on Snippy's jacket and grabbed the waiting palm. He took a deep breath before the next step.

"Now, hold on tight." And then he let go his grasp on the jacket completely and wrapped his arm again around the rail. Then he pulled as hard as he could and fortunately it was enough. Snippy got a hold of the deck with his free hand and together they got him sturdily back on the fire escape. Well, not so sturdy, as they had noticed now.

Neither of them could talk from the panting and rapid heartbeat for a while. After catching his breath, Gromov glanced at where the fire escape had just moments ago continued. "That was our way down", he said grimly standing up.

"Don't worry about it. Wasn't it you who wanted to use the door on the roof in the first place?"

"And what good is it to us now? If you don't remember, the distance between the roof and the deck is thirteen feet, there is no way we can _both_ get back there!"

"Then we'll just find another way", Snippy said laid back.

"How can you be so calm? We're stuck here and if you didn't happen to tell Captain or Pilot where you were heading, no one will come to rescue us!"

"Things will usually sort out themselves and this isn't even a bad situation, not even close. How come you're so uptight and worried?" The sniper asked presumably frowning and mumbled: "That's usually my job."

"How can I not be? Have you noticed that everyone we used to know is dead! Life has almost completely ended on this planet we once called home. Do you understand that future's in our hands and we'll never be the same again. Nothing will." He sounded more desperate than he had meant to, even to himself.

Snippy was quiet before saying: "Not about getting out of here then. There's nothing we can really do for this situation." He waved his hand including their whole environment in the movement. "And this future you were talking about, I don't really know if there is one." If that was supposed to make Engie feel better, it failed terribly. Though he had known that already, he had known on the very moment he had ordered to nuke Eureka. He had just tried to grow new hope, albeit, he was quite sure Snippy had just killed that try completely.

Perhaps the sniper noticed how depressed he had gotten the other one or maybe there was some other reason, either way, he stood up and put a hand on Engie's shoulder. "It's better not to think about it. You need all your concentration to survive here, so there's not really time to sulk." He seemed to handle this comforting thing _so well_. "I think there was a window big enough couple storeys up. Come."

They climbed for enough time to make Engie out of his breath and finally found the window Charles had been talking about, though Gromov wasn't exactly sure if it was considered big enough. After some kicking the junk away from the way by the sniper, they fit through. Barely.

Inside everything was a big mess under thick layer of dust. There was no furniture intact, no whole walls and the ceiling looked like it would give in at any moment. It was surprising the entire building hadn't collapsed already. Then Alexander saw something that made a tight knot in his stomach, toys. This had been a living apartment for family with children.

"I found stairs! They seem to be mostly in one piece, so we should be able to get the whole way down. Engie?" Snippy's head poked back into the room from what probably once was a doorway. Alexander hadn't even noticed the other man leaving from his side and even less he had noticed he had himself kneeled down and took one of the toys in his hand. It was a simple black haired plush doll with a big smile. But its eyes looked sad, so sad and so blaming. _'Why did you do this to us?'_

Suddenly the toy was taken away and he was helped back on his feet. He felt a firm grip on his wrist and then was lead somewhere. Stairs. Yes, Snippy had said there were stairs, they could get down. Gromov closed his eyes and shook his head as hard as he could, trying to shake the guilt away. Of course that was impossible, but at least he could get his head back in the game.

"You okay now?" The other man loosened his grip and looked Engie in a way that looked like sympathy.

"Yeah, sorry", the engineer answered quietly. Snippy gave a small nod, but didn't say another word. In some level he probably understood how Engie had felt.

The two men went slowly down the staircase minding their steps. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and Gromov was about to let himself to dream about warm dinner waiting at their main base – that of course, _if_ Pilot had been able to get fire going on to heat something that was probably expired – when they heard something that made their hearts skip a beat.

"Please tell me that was your stomach", Engie whimpered his mind now on the mutants of worms – and who knows what – they had left upstairs behind the door. Except now they were on the same side of that door.

"We should hurry." It was easier said than done. The lower they had gotten, the more out of order the stairs were, consisting of missing, broken and loose steps.

Inevitably the growling was getting closer and Engie could have sworn he even felt the monsters' warm breath on his neck, that of course being impossible in theory. But not for long, abruptly only couple stories up, the walls seemed to explode shaking the whole building. Engie and Snippy fought to stay on their feet and looked up. There were two crawler worms and a Hunter-Wraith coming towards them saliva dripping from their mouths. Engie was paralyzed, he knew he should run, but he couldn't move his feet or tear his eyes off the menace wanting to eat him.

Again it was Snippy who got him on the move. The sniper came back to him and shoved him towards downstairs following right after. It was just a matter of time and luck when either of them would break legs. And of course the luck wasn't on Gromov's side, how else. His foot got caught on a step or junk, he didn't know, and a sharp pain filled his head as he stumbled a few stairs down and fell flat.

As he tried to get up his left leg gave in under him. He couldn't stand not to talk about running. Wildly Engie turned to see how far their chasers were and found out they were a lot closer than he had hoped. What should he do now? Just wait here for his end to come? Roll the rest of the stairway down?

"How come I have to be saving you all the time?" The sniper asked helping Engie up. "Come on! Don't make this too easy for them!"

"I can't!" Snippy had already started moving forward and now turned back to his teammate the other goggle lens up. Then he seemed to notice that Engie wasn't putting any weight on his other foot. Swiftly he studied their surroundings, then he came and put Engie's left arm around his shoulders and wrapped his own arm around the engineer's waist. He led them to a doorway which had mostly come down. They made a tight squeeze in; the oversized mutants wouldn't be able to follow them. Except they had just a moment ago witnessed how they could break walls as if they were made out of paper.

Luckily Charles appeared to have a plan: stripping. When they got to the inner parts of the apartment, the sniper let go of Engie, took the jacket off and then did same to Engie, who was too baffled to protest. Without explanation Snippy left the jackets on the floor, took his grip of the other again and continued moving.

Finally they came to a room with a wardrobe and apparently that was where they were going. Maybe the sniper had lost it and thought they would find a passageway to another world through it? Whatever the man was planning, they packed in there on a very uncomfortable position and remained silent. Engie wanted to ask what this was about, but he didn't dare to say anything, for he could hear the beasts entering the apartment.

He listened to the rampage going on some rooms away from them, when Snippy suddenly started to gesture something to him. What was that supposed to mean? Lowering hand? Pointing at his mask? That one he knew! Snippy was shushing him. Why? He hadn't said anything. Oh… he was hyperventilating and his heart was trying to make its way out of his chest. Great and how was he going to stop that? _Okay, Alex, breathe in and out, in and out… This isn't working._

And the next thing he knew, Snippy had somehow made his way in the cramped closet to Engie and had him now in embrace. He was even caressing the other one's back! And surprisingly it helped. Engie felt his breathe and heart beat slowing down. When the engineer was calm again, Snippy stopped the stroking, but didn't move further, not because either of them was feeling comfortable, but because it was very hard to move in so small space, especially when they didn't want to make any extra sound.

It felt like forever before the mutants gave up on their human dinner and continued their way to elsewhere. After waiting a few minutes to be sure they were safe, the two crashed out of the closet and lay down a moment. It was Snippy who got up first and left the room. Engie was in no hurry and soon the sniper came back.

"Apparently you smell tastier than I do", he said and threw the fur trimmed jacket back to its owner. Engie sat up and looked at his jacket. It was covered with saliva. Very bad smelling saliva. For he had no other choice, he gave a heavy sigh and put the jacket on.

Snippy's plan had been very risky. There was no telling what might have happened, if the monsters had realized that their fleshy meal hadn't just vaporized in thin air, but was sitting in a closet only ten yards away. Luck was on their side. It meant they weren't completely useless to the Captain yet.

"We need to continue our way before they decide to come back. Let's go."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Engie asked and pointed at his throbbing ankle.

"Oh… Can't you fix it?"

"Fix it?" Engie asked disbelieving. "What do you take me for, a miracle maker? I'm an engineer, not a doctor."

"I thought you were an agent", Snippy said emotionlessly.

"Oh, shut up!" Engie answered irritated. Had he really have to bring that up now?

The taller man crouched next to the injured leg. "Is it a sprain?"

"I. Don't. Know", the engineer spelled tired. "I don't know anything about medical science; I even ditched the health education classes as often as I could."

Without a warning the sniper took a hold of Engie's boot and pulled it gingerly off. Alexander bit his lip hard and let out a hiss. "Next time, warn me", he said feeling the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

"I think… it might be dislocated", Snippy said assessing after removing the sock. "I could possibly pull it back." He put his hand gently under Engie's heel, but before he could do anything, the other jerked himself further.

"No no no, that's not going to happen, no way." Snippy gave him a questioning look. "It's going to hurt as hell! There's no way I'm letting you to do it!"

"Stop being such a wimp. It will hurt, sure, but only for a second. Besides, if we don't do anything to it, it will never heal."

"I think I can deal with that."

"Look at it", Charles commanded.

Engie swallowed hard. "I don't kno-"

"Look at your ankle." Unwillingly the shorter man obeyed. And regretted it. His ankle had swollen at least double its normal size, it was purple and in a weird angle. He felt sick.

"You'd better get it right with one pull."

Snippy hesitated. He looked around the room and Engie could see his gaze settling on a heavy looking chest. Of course, he had to hold onto something while Snippy would pull his foot, otherwise it would only be painful and not helpful at all.

Difficultly they got the reluctant patient on the chest. There Engie squeezed the sides as hard as he could and closed his eyes, preparing himself to the upcoming agony. He felt how Snippy took a tender grip of his foot. "Ready?" Engie nodded and held his breath. Then Snippy tightened his grip and pulled and Engie let out a cry.

"Better put the boot back on if you can. You don't want your skin to become charred from all the toxins." Didn't need to tell _him_ that. "And I suggest you hurry, your cry wasn't exactly the quietest one, we might have been heard."

As it turned out, getting the shoe back on wasn't that easy, but somehow Engie managed to force his aching foot back in it. '_Hurts just for a second' my ass!_ It was clear he wouldn't be able to walk properly for a while. That said Snippy had to help him with the act.

They climbed down the stairs as far as they could get, but in the end, they did not reach the bottom floor. It was quite vexatious, especially when there were only two floors left. Fortunately the building was large enough in extent to have more than one staircase. Three in fact: the one both Gromov and Snippy had used to get on the roof (and the monsters, following the latter one, had destroyed), the other which they had just found to end on a deadlock and finally the stairs they used to get back on the surface at last.

Engie gave a relieved sigh in his mind, but didn't dare to get too relaxed yet. You never knew what was waiting behind the next corner.

"About the earlier", the sniper suddenly started, "it wasn't really me just saving you all the time. Well, I did save you or help you more than once. Quite a many times actually."

"Is there supposed to be a point here?" Engie asked annoyed. The other had already made it clear (in a way) that he thought of him as a helpless lunatic.

"Ah, yes, I… I wanted to thank you, for not letting me fall. So, thanks." Okay, wasn't expecting that.

"Oh…" _Come on, again with the 'oh'? You can do better than that. Use those famous brains of yours!_ "Well, you know, like you said, you saved me. A lot. So… I suppose I should really be thanking you and… well… I owe you." _See? It's not that hard._

"Please don't write that on an apple."

"What?"

"Nothing."

They continued their low-speeded way in a tad less awkward silence, until Snippy broke it again. "What were you really doing on that roof?"

Engie was a bit taken aback of the other man's curiosity. But then again, it might have been a bit suspicious from the other's point of view.

"I was avoiding the assignment the Captain gave me", he answered desponded. The sniper gave an understanding nod. He must have gotten his share of those insane missions, no doubt. Now Engie would have to come up with a good reason why he hadn't done the job given to him. The Captain wouldn't probably approve '_it's dangerous, stupid and impossible to do with the equipment we have_', as an acceptable excuse.

Without the engineer's knowledge, Snippy was having similar problems. He had only found three things from the Captain's endless list of insanity before the mutants had ambushed him. But there was no way Snippy would hang out to dry his injured comrade just so he wouldn't get the neverending rant about how he, once again, didn't finish the (ridiculous) shopping list.

And as one could guess, when they finally did get back to the base, the Captain was not happy with the two minions. Not happy at all. And they were going to feel that in their sorry butts.


End file.
